This topic describes system requirements for Office 365 for business. If you’re looking for system requirements for Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, Office 365 University, Office 365 ProPlus, or the desktop programs for Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word, see System Requirements for the new Office.

For the best experience using Office 365, we recommend that you always use the latest browsers, Office clients, and apps. We also recommend that you install software updates when they become available.

Office 365 is designed to work with the following software:

The current or immediately previous version of Internet Explorer or Firefox, or the latest version of Chrome or Safari.

Any version of Microsoft Office in mainstream support.

Although Microsoft does not recommend that you connect to Office 365 by using older browsers and clients, we provide limited support so long as that software is supported by its manufacturer. Specifically, if you continue to use older browsers and clients:

Office 365 won’t deliberately prevent you from connecting to the service.

Office 365 won’t provide code fixes to resolve problems related to those clients, but it will offer security fixes as needed.

The quality of the user experience will diminish over time.

Office 365 does not support any software used with the service that is not supported by its manufacturer.

Office 365 is designed to work with the current or immediately previous version of Internet Explorer. We recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer after it is released. Office 365 might continue to work with versions of Internet Explorer other than the current and immediately previous versions for some time after the release of a new version of Internet Explorer, but Office 365 can’t provide any guarantees.

When accessing Office 365 from older versions of Internet Explorer, users may experience known issues and limitations depending on the versions of Internet Explorer, including:

Internet Explorer 9 Office 365 does not offer code fixes to resolve problems you encounter when using the service with Internet Explorer 9. You should expect the quality of the user experience to diminish over time, and that many new Office 365 experiences might not work at all.

Internet Explorer 8 The user experience sending and receiving email with Outlook Web App and Internet Explorer 8 might be substantially diminished, especially when used on Windows XP or with low memory devices. Office 365 does not offer code fixes to resolve problems you encounter when using the service with Internet Explorer 8, and new Office 365 experiences might not work at all. You should also expect the quality of the user experience with Internet Explorer 8 to diminish further in the near future. Beginning in May 2014, Internet Explorer 8 will only display Outlook Web App Light. If you are an Office 365 admin, you will see a notification of this change in the Message Center in the Office 365 admin center 30 days before the change takes place.

Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates. To learn more, see the Internet Explorer Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ.

Office 365 is designed to work with the current or immediately previous version of Firefox, or the latest version of Chrome or Safari. Microsoft supports only browser versions that are also supported by the browser’s manufacturer. Typically, this is only the most current version. Firefox and Chrome are both designed to stream updates your devices every six weeks. Many common problems with these browsers are resolved in the next update.

Most Office 365 plans provide you with the latest versions of Office desktop applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. To compare the availability of Office applications and features across Office 365 plans, see the Office Applications Service Description.

You can also use supported Microsoft Office clients with your Office 365 subscription. Office 365 is designed to work with any version of Microsoft Office that is in mainstream support. Although most new Office 365 experiences are designed for the latest version of Office, some new features might work with older versions of Office that are in mainstream support.

Office subscription software licenses (Office 365 ProPlus, Office Professional Plus 2010, and the Lync client provided with your Office 365 service) entitle you to use the current version of the software and do not include downgrade rights to older versions of the software. Microsoft may provide an upgrade period during which your subscription entitles you to use both a current and previous version of the software.

Note:

Mainstream support ends for Office Professional Plus 2010 on October 13, 2015. Mainstream support ends for Office Professional Plus 2013 on April 10, 2018.

Although Office clients in extended support were not designed to work with Office 365, they should continue to connect to the Office 365 service. We will provide a notice consistent with our Service Pack Support Lifecycle Policy if there is a substantial degradation of the user experience with an Office client that is in extended support or if that Office client no longer connects to the Office 365 service.

Office 365 Support provides assistance with older clients, offering workarounds or how-to information when possible. However, in many cases, the only solution Office 365 Support can offer for a problem with an older browser or client is to upgrade it.

Note:

Office 365 is not designed to work with Office 2007 because Office 2007 left mainstream support on October 12, 2012. Office 365 does not offer code fixes to resolve problems you encounter when using the service with Office 2007. You should expect the quality of the user experience to diminish over time, and many new Office 365 experiences will not work at all. We recommend that you upgrade as soon as possible to Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus 2013 for the best experience with Office 365.

Office 365 does not have an operating system requirement, except that the operating system you use must be supported by its manufacturer. However, there might be advanced Office 365 configuration options, features, scenarios, or tools that have explicit dependencies on an operating system or behave differently on different operating systems.

Note:

Windows XP leaves extended support on April 8, 2014. Although Office 365 will not block users from connecting to the service from Windows XP devices after this date, you should expect the user experience to diminish over time. Users with low-memory devices running Windows XP and Internet Explorer 8 will have a substantially diminished browser experience with Office 365.

The Microsoft Service Pack Lifecycle Support Policy requires you to install Office Service Packs within 12 months of its release. Office 365 requires you to be in compliance with this policy.

Automatic public updates contain critical security fixes for Microsoft products. Office 365 strongly recommends that customers accept automatic updates from Microsoft both to secure their environments and to have the best experience with Office 365. Office 365 ProPlus and Lync Basic users can only defer installing updates for 12 months from date of release.

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